Ayotte officiates at wedding of Scott Brown's daughter

Arianna Brown, daughter of U.S. Senate hopeful Scott Brown, and James Hendry were married in a ceremony officiated by Sen. Kelly Ayotte on Sunday afternoon at Flag Hill Winery in Lee. (APRIL GUILMET/Union Leader Correspondent)

LEE — Politics and private lives converged in wedded bliss on Sunday afternoon, when the daughter of U.S. Senate hopeful Scott Brown and her longtime sweetheart were declared husband and wife by Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

About 150 guests attended the intimate ceremony atop a tree-shaded hillside overlooking the Flag Hill vineyards. Dressed in the same weddng gown her mother, Gail Huff Brown, wore when she married the former Massachusetts senator nearly three decades ago, Arianna Brown was escorted down the aisle by her father.

Ayla, who walked down the aisle holding the family’s tuxedo-wearing terrier Koda, was maid of honor.

Arianna and her husband, James Hendry, both 23, each read original vows before exchanging rings.

“By joining in marriage, they made the decision to be together for life,” Ayotte said as the couple clutched hands. “May you grow stronger and better together and may you have a lifetime of happiness.”

“I vow to cherish our love from one lifetime to the next,” Hendry told his blushing bride. “Because one lifetime isn’t nearly long enough.”

Arianna wiped away a tear as a summer breeze swept her veil from her face.

“I cannot find all the perfect words, all the perfect sayings,” she told Hendry. “But for you and me the possibilities are endless. Our love is stronger than sadness, braver than loneliness.”

Hendry, a paralegal specialist with the Department of Justice, is a former Brown Senate office intern while Arianna will start veterinary school at Cornell University this fall.

Her parents celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary on July 12. “I married my best friend,” Scott Brown said of his many years with Gail Huff Brown. “We just couldn’t be happier today.”

Wedding bells will chime once again for the Brown family in just several weeks, when Ayla gets married at her Tennessee home.

Ayotte and the elder Brown became friends while serving in the Senate together, according to the candidate’s publicist, Elizabeth Guyton. Guyton said the family had asked Ayotte to officiate the ceremony some time before Brown decided to run for the Granite State race.